THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT MELT
OOZING, STRETCHY, MELTABILITY ARE THE HEART OF CHEESE’S APPEAL. THAT ELUSIVE QUALITY IS THE HOLY GRAIL FOR FOOD SCIENTISTS SEARCHING FOR CHEESE WITHOUT THE ANIMALS. LAURA BREHAUT EXPLORES THE ODYSSEY
With temperatures in the single digits, cheese dakgalbi was pure comfort. Chopsticks in hand, each bite stretched and pulled, a tangled mouthful of melted mozzarella, chicken and sliced vegetables bathed in a gently tingly red chili sauce. Steam swirled around the sizzling cast-iron skillet from the moment the server set it down until we got up to leave, plates scraped clean.
At Hancook Cheese Dakgalbi in Toronto’s Koreatown, cheese dakgalbi is the name of the game.
“When Canadians think of Korean food, they often refer to bibimbap, bulgogi and K-barbecue. We wanted to introduce a new dish that’s not as well known but Canadians will love,” says chef Soo Han by email. “Cheese dakgalbi is very popular in Korea, and we thought, ‘Who doesn’t love cheese?’”
Fermented foods such as jang (fermented soybean sauces) and kimchi are the primary flavours of Korean cooking. It seems only natural that Koreans have developed a taste for cheese, another fermented product. The relationship began with the supplies the United States Army left behind after the Korean War (1950-1953), according to SBS Food, and escalated into a full-blown love affair in the 2000s as chefs started using it to balance the spiciness in favourites such as buldak (fire chicken) and tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes).
Han appreciates the savoury dimension cheese brings to dishes. Though the flavour is paramount, meltability is integral to the experience. “The cheese pull is always fun.”
There are several vegetarian options on the menu, and Han has experimented with plant-based cheeses, but they hardened too quickly after melting. “We would love to be able to replace cheese with more eco-friendly vegan options eventually,” she says. “However, I think plant-based cheese needs to be developed a little further to mimic regular cheese better.”
Here lies the rub. The world’s appetite for plant-based cheese is expanding, but the products on the market don’t match the versatility, taste, texture and nutrition of conventional cheese.
The potential is there. Food scientists are tapping into methods honed over centuries of dairy culture, in-depth knowledge of available ingredients and cutting-edge cellular agriculture in the hopes of creating something new: alternative cheeses that melt, pull, stretch, taste and nourish like dairy, but without the animals.
I find cheese so compelling I completed a professional fromager certificate. With thousands of different styles, its shape-shifting qualities are the heart of its appeal. Some are so liquid you can spoon them directly onto your tongue; others hold their form on a hot grill as they bubble and caramelize. When cold, cheese can be creamy, sliceable or spreadable. When warm, it oozes, pulls and stretches. Of all its properties, cheese’s ability to melt is irresistible. But why do we find it so appealing?
And why is it so challenging to achieve in plant-based alternatives?
THE RISE OF THE FLEXITARIANS
Makers of meat alternatives are struggling, but demand for plantbased cheeses is steadily accelerating. The global vegan cheese market was valued at $4.4 billion (US$3.2 billion) in 2023 and is expected to reach $12.7 billion (US$9.2 billion) by 2030, according to Rationalstat analysis. The once core customer base — vegans, vegetarians and people with allergies, intolerances and sensitivities — is expanding. However, it’s the rise of flexitarians, people who eat primarily plants and occasionally animal products, that is responsible for most of the growth.
Forty-two per cent of people worldwide follow a flexitarian diet, Euromonitor’s Health and Nutrition Survey reveals. Vegans and vegetarians make up a much smaller percentage of the population in comparison, at four per cent and six per cent, respectively.
Plant-based cheese consumers have changed, and so have their expectations. In 2022, Kerry, a multinational taste and nutrition company headquartered in Ireland, surveyed more than 1,500 people in four countries (Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States) to understand what sensory experiences consumers are looking for in cheese alternatives.
The research found that flexitarians are more critical of plant-based products than vegans or vegetarians: Dairy is the benchmark. Consumers expect alternatives to deliver the same, if not better, meltability, taste experience and flavour intensity as mainstream foods and beverages, says Christin Kohloff, vice-president of research, development and applications (RD&A) at one of Kerry’s global locations in Beloit, Wisconsin.
“Sixty-three per cent of U.S. consumers purchase plant-based alternatives because they believe plant-based is better for the planet. And while sustainability is a top driver, consumers are unwilling to compromise on taste. They seek products that are as close to the taste of conventional animal products as possible.”
A VEGAN SLICE FOR THE GOLDEN ARCHES
Joan Tobin, R&D manager at Kerry’s Global Innovation Centre in Naas, County Kildare, Ireland, grew up on her father’s dairy farm in Tipperary. A love of science and food led her to do a PHD in cheese chemistry, and her 23-year career at Kerry began with the development of the No. 1 string cheese in the U.K.
Tobin’s first significant foray into plant-based cheese was as big as they come: a vegan version of Mcdonald’s American cheese slice that would deliver the same taste, texture and melt as dairy. With its extraordinary gooiness, American cheese is the epitome of meltability. The fact that Kerry also makes the conventional slice was both an advantage and a challenge.
On one hand, the Kerry team had the technology and knowledge of what went into the original. On the other, they had to replicate it using plant-based ingredients — something no one had done before. None of the commercial vegan cheese products matched the classic American burger slice, which Tobin explains they make with a specific technology, moulding each piece individually.
“Anything else on the marketplace is made in a block format and then sliced as you would Cheddar, Emmental, Gouda, and sold as that slice, whereas the American slice is made like a cheese sauce. It’s spread out as a sheet on a table and ... it’s cut into ribbons and then into squares to give you that slice. So, as well as taste and texture and melt being key attributes, getting it to actually work on what’s called the casting belt was another significant challenge. But it was highly motivating as well.”
The versatility of dairy taste and texture is a tough act to follow when developing a vegan slice, says Tobin. “It has to be as good as what dairy is for the flexitarian consumer who does both ... So, no mean challenge to match it.”
After making hundreds of small, one-kilogram batches “on bench” in a development kitchen in Charleville, Ireland, Tobin and her team took their plant-based cheese to pilot scale in Beloit, where they tested 20- to 40-kilogram batches on equipment similar to what would be used in a factory.
The first slices that Mcdonald’s approved were off-bench; the “ultimate challenge” was scaling up, says Tobin. After much trial and error, they launched the vegan slice in Europe in 2021 — a non-dairy cheese that folds and peels, melts and softens (thanks to the coconut oil, which gives a buttery mouthfeel when melted), similar to a standard processed cheese slice.
“When the samples are submitted and they taste it and the feedback is positive, it’s motivating, and you’re just going. And then when the euphoria of that subsides, you’re back to, ‘Oh, crikey. Now we’ve got to make this to scale on a regular basis and get it out the door.’ But there is a huge sense of satisfaction when you see the Mcplant being advertised on a billboard or when you see it on the television. To feel that you’re a part of it, and ‘that’s our product,’ It’s a huge satisfaction. But when you go to Mcdonald’s, you’re that nerd looking at people to see their facial expressions and all the rest. As a food scientist, you never tire of that.”
Today, Tobin is developing hybrid cheeses, combining dairy and plantbased elements in a single product. “We’re creating sustainable nutrition at Kerry, and dairy is a large contributor to carbon emissions. So, we’re seeing how we can combine the two to get the best of both.”
It’s all about the melt (a.k.a. The miraculousness of cheese)
To convince curious eaters not just to try plant-based products, but to incorporate them into their diets more regularly, the products need to play the part. Can you eat it straight from the fridge as a snack, slice it for a tuna melt or shred it for queso fundido?
“Meltability is probably one of the most important aspects, I think, when people are evaluating cheese. No. 1, it needs to melt,” says Jamie Siu, R&D director of advanced research and technology at Daiya Foods based in Burnaby, B.C. “And then, of course, the next (hurdle) is the mouthfeel, the texture, the chew, the flavour and the aroma.”
A mozzarella stick without a satisfying cheese pull isn’t fulfilling its promise. Tobin says that achieving a dairy-like taste and texture using a different protein is one of the biggest challenges alternative cheesemakers face. The main protein in cheese is casein, which she considers the gold standard. “It’s the building block of every cheese. And it melts and flows so well. The melt is critical.”
A cheese’s ability to shape-shift from a sliceable brick to a bubbling fondue starts with the milk protein casein. The rennet added to warm milk during cheesemaking causes the casein to coagulate into curd, enmeshing fat and water molecules. When you heat cheese to temperatures between 54C and 82C, the matrix of milk proteins begins to unravel. The cheese slumps and flow and stretch ensue.
The lower the water content, the more concentrated and bonded the protein molecules are, which is why a hard cheese such as Parmesan needs more heat to melt (82C) than a moist and soft mozzarella (54C).
Water content also explains why, when a low-moisture cheese does melt, the shreds stay separate instead of oozing together like mozzarella on a pizza. It’s also why aged cheeses usually require higher heat to melt. During affinage (the aging process), cheeses lose moisture over time, leaving their protein bonds more tightly packed. “Typically, younger, high-moisture cheeses like mozzarella, Brie, Gruyère and Emmentaler are reliable melters, while low-moisture cheeses like Parmesan and Pecorino are not,” Marissa Sertich Velie writes in The Oxford Companion to Cheese (2016).
Some cheeses do not melt no matter how much heat is applied, such as many fresh goat cheeses, halloumi, paneer, queso fresco and ricotta. Whether hailing from Cyprus, France, India, Italy or Mexico, these cheeses have one thing in common: they rely on acid coagulation (e.g., lemon juice/citric acid or vinegar), not rennet. You can grill slices of halloumi and simmer cubes of paneer in a gravy — all while keeping them intact — due to their protein structure.
In alternative cheeses, producers often attempt to imitate the casein matrix — the melt — using starches or hydrocolloids. And they are experimenting with engineering casein using microbes instead of animals.
PLANT-BASED CHEESE: ‘STILL A BABY’
Cheese is rooted in many of the world’s food traditions. As Dominique Bouchait writes in Fromages (2019), “It has no specific home. The thousands of varieties to be found around the world speak of an ancient and diverse history and multiple origins.” Archeological findings suggest humans have been making cheese since we started raising cattle, goats and sheep between 13,000 and 10,000 years ago.
“Dairy cheese has been around since prehistoric times. And is it a science? Is it an art? I definitely think it’s both, and it has been studied for so long,” says Tobin.
There are many different types of plant protein, from pea to fava bean, but even 20 years ago, they were primarily used in animal feed, says Tobin.
Meltability is central to many of the world’s most-loved comfort foods, from chiles rellenos to grilled cheese, the tuna melt to mac and cheese, which Canadians eat in massive quantities — more than 1.7 million boxes per week. Laura Brehaut shares her Top 10 phenomenal dishes that are all about the melt. How you achieve that cheese pull, dairy or plant-based, is up to you.
“So, it’s a huge leap. They’re not as researched, and there’s not as much science. There’s not as much chemistry understood of them.”
Plant proteins work differently from casein. Replicating centuries of dairy culture is a tall order, though vegan cheese is older than you might assume.
In China, people have used fermented tofu to make non-dairy cheeses for 1,400 to 1,500 years. (At an Okinawan restaurant in Tokyo, I tasted tofuyo, fermented tofu with a creamy pungency similar to Roquefort, brought to Okinawa from China during the Ryukyu dynasty in the 18th century.) According to William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi’s History of Cheese, Cream Cheese and Sour Cream Alternatives (With or Without Soy, 1896-2013), in North America, plant-based cheese kicked off in 1896, when John Harvey Kellogg created Nuttose, a peanut-based “meatlike or cheeselike product.” As Eater reports, Li Yu-ying’s “soy dairy,” established in 1910 in France, was the earliest documented commercial producer of vegan cheese. Li adapted Chinese techniques to imitate Camembert, Gruyère and Roquefort at a factory on the outskirts of Paris.
Plant-based cheese, as we know it now, started to accelerate and expand beyond soy protein in the mid1980s. Though it has a long history, it is still catching up to dairy, says Tobin. “The one thing we forget is that although plant-based has erupted — it has become so popular in the last number of years — it’s not that new. We talk about it being new, but it has been around for quite some time. But when you compare it to dairy, it’s very much still a baby.”
Producers have made progress, but alternatives lack the variety and versatility of dairy cheese, says Ellen Morgan, senior director of global RD&A for integrated technology and innovation at Kerry in Beloit. “We’ve seen new launches over the years starting to try to address those gaps that still exist between cheese alternatives and conventional cheese. And one gap is truly achieving that authentic dairy taste with the complexity of cheese varieties. So, think a sharp, aged Cheddar or nutty Parmesan or smoky Gouda, or perhaps it’s that performance that you’d expect in a gooey grilled cheese or that stretchy mozzarella on a pizza. Or, finally, nutrition.”
THE NOSTALGIA FACTOR
Part of the challenge of simulating cheese’s melt and stretch is the ingredients available, says Morgan. Plant-based cheesemakers use fat, water, and starches or hydrocolloids to mimic casein, but dairy proteins behave in a unique way that is difficult to replace.
Kerry’s study of expectations around cheese alternative slices showed how vital melt is. Seventyeight per cent of American participants agreed that a plant-based cheese that melts evenly would be delicious; the same percentage would buy one that’s smooth and velvety; 74 per cent said cheese that melts evenly is satisfying and indulgent; 70 per cent would purchase cheese with a visible pull when melted; and 69 per cent would eat more plant-based cheese if it were soft and gooey when melted.
“When you think about taste, flavour is one aspect, but how it’s consumed in the mouth, the melting properties, the mouthfeel, the oil release — that all affects the flavour,” says Morgan.
People expect alternatives to perform the same as regular cheese, Morgan adds. “So the melt plays a huge part in how the product is perceived in terms of taste, as well as how it performs in your taco or in your quesadilla or on your pizza, and grilled cheese sandwich, et cetera.”
Kohloff adds: “And there’s a real nostalgia factor at play here as well. So, when you’re a kid and you eat that grilled cheese sandwich, it’s really comforting and that authentic experience of a real melt is important to consumers.”
ALL-IMPORTANT MOUTHFEEL
Since cheese has been with us for millennia, it’s safe to assume that most people find it one of the culinary pleasures that makes life worthwhile. Melted cheese is on the table in many of the world’s kitchens. But why does the pull of the akkawi cheese in knafeh, curds in poutine or Oaxaca cheese in quesadillas make people’s hearts pitter-patter? There seems to be a scientific reason why people prefer flowing cheese over firm cubes, and it comes down to mouthfeel.
Questions about the perception of taste spurred University of Copenhagen physicist Ole G. Mouritsen and chef Klavs Styrbaek, co-owner of Styrbaeks restaurant in Odense, Denmark, to explore how texture fits in. We tend to overlook how foods’ physical qualities influence our choices, they write in Mouthfeel (2017). “Even though this often happens quite subconsciously, it turns out that our liking a foodstuff or rejecting it is often more dependent on how it feels in our mouth, rather than on how it tastes or smells.”
Studies suggest that mouthfeel affects not only our desire to eat certain foods but also how much of them we consume. According to Scishow,
melted cheese tastes so good partly because people tend to choose foods that are easy to eat. With soft, melty cheese, you get maximum reward for minimal effort.
The appeal of the melt could also be related to fat, the most calorie-rich macronutrient. The mouthfeel of fat-containing foods, especially those that change state (something cheese has in common with chocolate) signals that they are higher in calories.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE FONDUE POT
All the sensory pleasure, versatility and nutrition that comes with cheese has a downside: it may be as harmful to the environment as some kinds of meat. According to the BBC’S climate change calculator, if you were to eat two crackers’ worth (30 grams) three to five times a week, your annual cheese consumption would be comparable to driving a car 827 kilometres or heating a home for 31 days.
In their 2022 thought experiment, Dinner on Mars, food scientists Lenore Newman and Evan Fraser explore what it would take to feed a settlement in deep space. Dairy cows are unlikely to make the trip to the Red Planet, they write. The energy required is among the reasons why. “A dairy cow eats 25 kilograms of feed a day and drinks between 100 and 200 litres of water. On Earth, feeding these creatures represents about 70 per cent of the operating cost of most dairies.” So, how would the hypothetical inhabitants of their Martian settlement of Basetown get cheese, a cornerstone of many of the world’s cuisines?
Fraser and Newman believe that future cheesemakers will use proteins synthesized by yeast and bacteria, not those found in cow’s milk — and not just on Mars. Cellular agriculture could be the answer to making cheese in space and easing the environmental strain of dairy production on Earth.
Food companies already use cellular agriculture to make labgrown meat, from chicken nuggets to woolly mammoth meatballs. Another category, precision fermentation, uses microbes such as bacteria, fungi or yeast to convert sugars into animal protein. Essentially, scientists turn microbes into mini-factories to produce specific ingredients.
In much the same way, Fraser predicts advances in fermentation-based processes to create various proteins in the next 10 years. “Those will, gradually at first and then, I think, with increasing speed, start appearing on our grocery store shelves. And there will be a transition away from traditional livestock towards those. And it won’t be 100 per cent, but there will be a whole lot of stuff we currently think of as coming from an animal today,” he said in a 2022 interview with the National Post. “Chicken nuggets being an obvious example. Ice cream being another one — cheap cheese, you know, blocks of orange cheddar, being a third and the filling in a frozen burrito. Those will become less dependent on animals and more dependent on fermentation processes for their ingredients.”
WHEN YOU’RE A KID AND YOU EAT THAT GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH, IT’S REALLY COMFORTING AND THAT AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE OF A REAL MELT IS IMPORTANT TO CONSUMERS.
Christin Kohloff, vice-president, research, Development and applications, Kerry
SWAPPING LIVESTOCK FOR MICROBES
Startups such as Change Foods and New Culture have swapped livestock for microbes to produce dairy proteins, fats and flavours, enabling them to make cheeses they claim “stretch, melt and taste like the real deal.” In 2024, James Beard Award-winning chef Nancy Silverton will become the first in the world to serve New Culture’s animal-free, dairy mozzarella at her Los Angeles restaurant, Pizzeria Mozza.
Precision fermentation offers advantages regarding animal welfare and sustainability, but regulatory and scalability challenges exist — and it’s just one area of innovation, says Tobin. Food scientists are also working on making available plant proteins more functional. “Everyone wants minimum processing but maximum end result. So how do you bridge that gap, and how do you go about it and take those learnings?”
In terms of taste, there are a number of companies breeding fruits and vegetables to generate some of the aroma and flavour compounds found in cheese. This is one way plant-based alternatives may start to get the flavours available in dairy cheeses, from caramelly aged Goudas to peppery blue cheeses, adds Tobin.
Some of the startups Kerry works with are using artificial intelligence to discover novel plant proteins that replicate dairy, but that is still in development. Along with precision fermentation, “it may be a combination of all of these that will bring plant-based cheeses on to the next level,” says Tobin.
TAPPING INTO TRADITION
Daiya is banking on ancient microbial fermentation as a “major category breakthrough.” Andre Kroecher and Greg Blake kick-started the plant-based cheese movement in North America when they founded Daiya in 2008.
The cheese launching this winter — with a new look and ingredients, including the trademarked Daiya Oat Cream blend — is the ninth generation in the company’s 15-year history. The tenth and eleventh are already in progress, says CEO Michael Watt.
In March 2023, the company announced a multimillion-dollar investment in fermentation technology that it says has enabled it to create a dairy-free cheese that is “tastier, meltier and stretchier” than any of its competitors.
“We believe that the world needs less animal protein and more plantbased protein, so we’re not mimicking animal proteins. We’re not genetically modifying techniques and ingredients through precision fermentation,” says Watt. “For consumers, it’s hard to understand that or contemplate and then feel attracted to actually consuming something that’s animal-free but still carries the dairy allergens. You start wondering, ‘How is that, and what modifications are being made?’ So, I think the consumer is more apt to want what Daiya is doing, which is an age-old method of natural plant ingredients following a process methodology that the dairy industry has been using for over a century. We’re just replacing it with great, high-quality plants.”
Since Jamie Siu, director of advanced research and technology at Daiya, started working in plantbased cheese 11 years ago, he’s seen the quality and quantity of products increase. Like Tobin, he appreciates being able to blend science and food. “I’m a huge foodie, of course. I love cooking; I love eating.” He’s also among the roughly 65 per cent of people who have difficulty digesting dairy.
“I don’t consume dairy; I’m lactose intolerant and I love cheese. So, I had that personal connection there, trying to make better plantbased cheese products so, selfishly, I can have better options,” says Siu, laughing. “Cheese is one of those things that is so nostalgic. You think about amazing foods: wine and chocolate and cheese and coffee, for example. They’re all fermented and there’s just so much potential, I think, for making plantbased cheeses better. I know we’re not there yet as a category, but I really do believe that we’re getting there.”
In the late 2010s, Siu took a break from Daiya to do his master’s at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, where he specialized in fermenting plant proteins. He experimented with hundreds of strains of lactic acid bacteria to reduce the beany, grassy, and hay-like off-notes of plant proteins, and generate the aromatic compounds in cheese.
He was interested in the work chefs around the world were doing in fermentation, including at René Redzepi’s groundbreaking restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, and wanted to learn more about how centuries-old techniques could create such complex and unique aromas and flavours.
With dairy cheese manufacturing, you start with milk. And for the most part, says Siu, “Milk is milk.” The cows’ diet affects the composition, but the primary elements of cheesemaking are the same: milk fat, protein, whey and trace minerals. With plant-based cheese, the milk could be in many different forms, from almond and oat to pea and soy. “It really opens up the complexity and the diversity, and how you even begin taking bacterial strains, which have been adapted to grow so well on milk for centuries, and put them into a new environment with new nutrients, different microcomponents within this ‘milk.’ And what kind of resulting aromas and flavours do you get? Long story short, you definitely do not get the same flavours and aromas as you do when you ferment dairy milk,” says Siu.
And here lies the challenge: “With that complexity and all of those ingredients that could be used to make plant-based milk and the different fat sources that could also be used, whether it be coconut fat or other plant-based oils. And then, just the hundreds of thousands of strains that are available. How do you begin to screen them down or create and select the right combination to start generating more of those authentic dairy aromas?”
Daiya’s ninth-generation product browns and bubbles on top of its pizzas. The shreds are creamier, meltier and stretchier. It looks the part, says Siu, which was the first hurdle. Fermentation offers opportunities to introduce more flavour complexity into plant-based cheeses.
“This traditional fermentation product ... is significantly better than any plant-based cheese on the market, including ourselves,” says Watt. “And it really starts to close the gap in a meaningful way to dairy cheese on key measures: taste, texture, meltability, et cetera. So we’re super excited. It also brings some elevated levels of nutrition with one full gram of protein per serving, which is roughly a third of what a dairy serving would be.”
For future iterations, taste and texture remain top priorities, says Watt, as well as finding ways to improve nutrition and make the ingredients recognizable to consumers — “and the fewer, the better.”
THE HAT TRICK: HIGH-PROTEIN, MELTY & STRETCHY
For more than three years, food science PHD student Stacie Dobson has been working with University of Guelph professor and Canada Research Chair Alejandro Marangoni on creating a high-protein, melty, stretchy plant-based cheese unlike any on the market.
Since none of the commercial options match the functionality and nutrition of dairy, they set out to make one. As Dobson and Marangoni describe in a paper published in the journal Current Research in Food Science, they achieved what they were after by combining waxy starch, plant-protein isolate and coconut oil.
“The cheese we created, we actually can do it all. One of the benefits is that we have a protein content equal to a processed cheese. So, around three grams of protein per serving in our formulations, and we can adapt to that. Where we set ourselves apart is that we have the protein, we have the melt, and we have the stretch in this product that we’ve created that fills in that gap.”
For convenience foods such as pizza, the industry may not be concerned about nutrition — “they’re just looking for that melt.” But for everyday consumers, nutritional value matters. Their high-protein plant-based analogs reached melt and stretch two to three times greater than commercial alternatives and are “significantly more similar” to dairy cheeses. To measure it, they developed an in-house stretch test.
One of the standard tests cheese manufacturers use to measure melt is the fork test, where you spear a sample and see how high you can stretch it before it breaks, Dobson explains. “From a scientific perspective, it’s very arbitrary, because how much sample are you picking up on your fork? How much force am I using to pull it up? How fast am I moving it?”
The lab group developed a method using a rheometer (an instrument used to measure a substance’s torque and viscosity) to test it quantitatively. “So, it’s important to set a standard of methods, and we’ve also done testing where we put it in a grilled cheese, or we put it on a pizza, and we see how well it performs in a pizza oven or different platforms. These are all tests that we do to try to make sure that the product we’re developing is behaving the way that we want.”
Another obstacle the team tackled was the recovery of plantbased cheese once it melts and cools. A common complaint of plant-based cheeses, such as Han’s experience at Hancook Cheese Dakgalbi, is that it hardens too quickly after melting.
The researchers have tested combinations of various plant proteins, such as chickpea, lentil and pea. They know how individual ingredients react to heating and might include a blend of different starches or hydrocolloids to create a matrix similar to dairy casein. Understanding the components and how they interact has helped them make a plant-based product more like dairy.
Dobson and Marangoni are still improving their plant-based cheese, emphasizing melt and stretch, and have filed a patent on their technology. Daiya is an industrial partner (Daiya’s new product rollout is not part of their partnership), and they have made connections worldwide, including in Europe and Israel, in hopes of taking their product further afield.
Their cheesemaking process is straightforward, Dobson says. Depending on the batch size, the cheese is ready to test in one to five days. They can tailor the process to make a product as hard as Parmesan or sliceable as a mild cheddar using easily accessible wholesale ingredients. But the work is far from over.
“As much as we made a product, it’s always interesting to see what happens when we incorporate different types of fat into the system. A lot of these use coconut oil, which definitely has that saturated fat mouthfeel of milk fat. But what if we do a combination and can decrease the saturated fat content? Or what if we use different complexations to make different directions of the fat that provide different structuring? And then researching how we can move from, let’s say, using an isolate, which is more environmentally taxing, to using a concentrate and understanding the different interactions of the starch. So there’s always more to learn.”
Meltability is a Holy Grail for plant-based cheesemakers. Even in the field’s relative nascency, the innovative work of Dobson, Marangoni and other food scientists gives cheese lovers a reason for optimism. Dairy-like stretch and pull are within reach, opening up more options for every eater.